Bengal gridders fall to Bears in overtime thriller

For the second straight year, the Diman Regional and Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School football teams traded punches in their traditional Thanksgiving Day clash to the bitter end. GNB’s Justyn Soares kicked a 22-yard field goal in overtime to give the Bears a 10-7 victory over the Bengals.

By Staff reports

The Herald News, Fall River, MA

By Staff reports

Posted Nov. 23, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Nov 23, 2012 at 11:01 PM

By Staff reports

Posted Nov. 23, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Nov 23, 2012 at 11:01 PM

FALL RIVER

» Social News

Ground and pound. Both teams tried it. Both were relatively unsuccessful at it. And when it was over, it took a field goal in overtime to finally decide the issue.

For the second straight year, the Diman Regional and Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School football teams traded punches in their traditional Thanksgiving Day clash to the bitter end.

GNB’s Justyn Soares kicked a 22-yard field goal in overtime to give the Bears a 10-7 victory over the Bengals.

With the victory, head coach Chuck Allaire’s team finished with a 5-6 record and earned a berth in next week’s State Vocational playoffs. Head coach Richard Vickrey’s Bengals, meanwhile, finished with an identical 5-6 record.

In a game basically played in the midfield area throughout, early on it looked like alast-minute score of some kind would eventually prove the difference.

Diman Regional enjoyed the biggest opportunity to win it in regulation.

A muffed recovery of a punt had given the Bengals 1st-and-10 on the GNB 22 and when Diman’sMike Ferreira took an ensuing hand-off on the next play 17 yards to the GNB 5with two minutes left to play it appeared the Bengals were poised to seal awaythe win. However, a holding call against the hosts brought the ball all the wayback to the 27 and that threat eventually went by the boards when GNB’s CoreyPonte intercepted a Crowinshield aerial inside the 5 as the clock ran out.

The overtime session proved to be a disaster for the hosts, right from the go.

Diman gotpossession of the football first from the 10, looking at four chances to score,but Crowinshield was picked quickly once again by GNB’s Trevor Mena in the endzone on the Bengals first possession.

The Bears then tookover, and after Ponte got the ball down to the 6 on two carries, Coach Allairecalled on his ace in the hole, Soares, a talented 4-year kicker. He promptlydrilled it through the uprights, earning GNB its fifth Director’s Cup trophy inthe six-year history of the series.

“They were toughand very well prepared for us. Give Diman a lot of credit,” Allaire said. “We’ve had our share of problems sustaining offense this seasonand we experienced the same kind of problems today.

“Fortuntely forus, it came down to a field goal situation, and I have all the confidence inthe world in Justyn. He’s been kicking for us for four years.

He’s got range from 42 yards out. This was a relative chip shot for him. He didn’t let usdown.

“We decided to gofor it on third down in case there was a breakdown of some kind. We still wouldhave another shot left at it.”

The teams had battled through a 7-7 stalemate through the first 20 minutes of play.

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The first period was uneventful with neither team able to sustain any offensive thrust; in fact,GNB didn’t get the game’s initial first down until the final play of theopening period.

Diman was able to finally produce an offensive twist to the clash in the second period. Beginningfrom the midfield stripe, Crowinshield drove his teammates the 50 yards in 10 plays, Ferreira fighting his way in from a yardout. The scoring march was highlighted by a huge GNB 15-yard unsportsmanlikecall and a 14-yard Ferreira scamper.

GNB, however, was quick to answer.

The Bears Tyler Sylvia directed his mates 58 yards in eight plays, Ponte taking a swing passfrom Sylvia and turning it into a nifty 18-yard scoring jaunt. Soares added theextra point to leave the clubs deadlocked at the half 7-7.

Diman threatened to steal momentum right away again to start the second half.

A 10-yard Aaron Achadinha rush followed by a 18-yard Crownshield-to-Japheth Richards hook-up hadthe Bengals looking at the door to a second score 1st-and-10 at theGNB 39. But when Crownshield went right back to the airways once again, thistime the Bears Matthew Hill was ‘Johnny on the Spot’ as he picked off the pass onhis own 10.

After the Bengals’ Kyle Yentz pounced on a loose ball at the GNB 454, the Bengals, behind therushing exploits of Alex Medeiros, drove all the way to the GNB 7 before thedrive fizzled and ended with a Cote missed 25-yard field goal attempt.

“We failed tocapitalize when we had our chances and it costs us dearly,” said Vickrey whenit was over. “I feel bad for our seniors. It was the second straight the gamewent right down to the wire only to come up short.”